Trump tells official: 'find' votes: BBC News Review

Hello, Happy New Year and welcome to News Review – the first one of 2021!

I'm Neil. Joining me is Tom. Hi there, Tom.

Hi Neil and hi to our audience. Happy New Year!

Today's story is about President Trump,

concerning his recent phone call about the US election.

OK. Well, if you want to test yourself on this vocabulary that we cover in the programme,

you can find a quiz on our website: bbclearningenglish.com.

Now, let's hear some more about that story from this BBC News report:

So, the story is about US President Donald Trump,

who lost last year's US presidential election. He's due to leave office this month.

Trump was recorded making a phone call to a politician in Georgia.

In this phone call, Trump asked the politician to give him extra votes

so that he can challenge the results of the election.

Many people, including Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, call this an abuse of power.

OK. Well, you've been looking around at this story,

picking out the interesting words and expressions.

You've chosen three. What are they?

I have three words, Neil, and they're all concerned with this idea of power.

The words are: 'pressed', 'overturn' and 'tilt'.

'Pressed', 'overturn' and 'tilt'.

So Tom, let's hear your first headline please, with that word 'pressed'.

My first headline is from The Guardian in the UK:

'Pressed' – try to persuade someone to do something.

Yeah. So, 'pressed' is the past simple of this base form 'press', which means to exert power.

So, for example, this word 'press' I might use when I went across the road

and you have to make the little red figure turn to a green figure

so that you can cross the road, you 'press' the button. Is this the same thing?

Yeah, exactly. Or you can 'press' the button on your TV remote to change the channel.

You exert pressure on it and pressure – P-R-E-S-S... – is a noun.

Sorry! P-R-E-S-S-U-R-E – is a noun and they have this root word 'press'.

Yeah. Pressure means force.

OK. So, when I was talking about pushing my finger onto something to make it move,

that was a literal meaning of the word, but this is more figurative in this headline, isn't it?

Yeah. It's more... it's not physical power, like when you push the button;

it's political power here. So, the headline is about Donald Trump applying force

or applying pressure to try and make the Georgia politician do something for him.

OK. Now, when I'm out and about in the summer,

which seems like a long time ago and a long time to come,

with my kids – whenever we see an ice cream van they always want to have an ice cream.

Can I say they 'press' me to buy an ice cream? Does that sound normal?

Ah – you could say that and I would understand you but it sounds strange, you know.

It sounds too formal, like perhaps you're speaking from 100 years ago, or something like that.

So, 'press' we would usually use for more serious situations,

like the results of a democratic election: very serious.

Children buying ice creams: not so serious.

That's what you think! OK. Let's have – let's have a summary:

If you like stories about Donald Trump, we have loads of them

and we've picked out one in particular that they can find. How can they find it, Tom?

You can find it by clicking the link.

OK. Now, let's have a look at your next headline.

My next headline is from the US, from Fox News, it says:

'Overturn' – change or reverse a decision or ruling.

Yeah. So, here 'overturn' – all one word – is a verb

and here it needs an object when we're talking about 'overturning' a decision.

So, the object in the title is 'Biden's win'.

OK. Might be useful to think about this, again, in a literal sense

because in this headline it's used in a figurative sense.

Once a week we put out our rubbish bins here

and often in the morning I notice that there's food waste all over the ground

because there are foxes and the foxes 'overturn' the bins.

They do – especially at Christmas.

Yeah.

So, yeah, 'overturn' in the physical sense means to, kind of,

flip things over or turn them – turn them over everywhere.

You notice I use the phrasal verb there as well, 'to turn over',

which is a more informal way of saying exactly the same thing.

Yeah. Interesting, isn't it? There's this word 'overturn', which is more formal,

and then there's 'turn over', which contains the same elements but in reverse

and as two words – as a phrasal verb – and that's more informal.

That's the main difference, isn't it?

Yeah, and... as a rule phrasal verbs are generally more informal

than a sort of direct verb like this.

OK. Let's have a summary:

If you would like to learn about the word 'turn' used in informal ways,

we have the perfect video for you and a great story as well, Tom.

Eight uses of 'turn' told through a popular fairy story, Hansel and Gretel.

You can find it by clicking the link.

OK. Let's have a look at your next headline.

Our next headline, from CNN in the US – it says:

And the word is 'tilt'.

'Tilt' – unbalance or change in favour of someone or something.

Yeah. So, 'tilt' – this has this key idea of not being balanced.

You gave us a good example in rehearsal, Neil. Can you tell us?

Yeah, OK. So, have you ever been on a ship or a boat, Tom?

I have, yes.

In... in bad weather?

Yeah.

Yeah. The ship is not balanced, is it? It 'tilts' from one side to the other.

Exactly. So, synonyms for 'tilt' are 'slope' and 'lean',

and it has this idea of becoming off-balance, off-centre, or sloping to one side.

I'm demonstrating with this pad of paper here – it's 'tilting' to one direction.

Yes and balance really is the key to understanding this word 'tilt', isn't it?

Both in the literal sense, like the ship I talked about... but also in a figurative sense.

Yeah. In the figurative sense we're talking about... almost like a balance of power.

So, Trump is trying to – according to the report,

Trump is trying to unbalance the result of the US election.

Now, this will – he's hoping that this will 'tilt' things in favour of him.

Yeah and 'favour' is a word often used with 'tilt'.

Yeah: 'tilt in favour'. We also – there are two very common words we use with 'tilt'

and these are 'tilt towards' or 'tilt against'. So, if something...

if you 'tilt towards' something, you favour it – this is positive.

If you 'tilt against' something then you're not in favour of it.

For example, I could say, 'My grandfather tilts towards Conservative politics

and Conservative politicians,' because this is his favoured style.

OK. And 'tilt' – we've talked about here – is a verb.

It's also a noun: 'a tilt'. Something can have a 'tilt'.

Yeah. If you say, 'There is a political tilt in the situation,'

it means there is political bias in the situation

and it could 'tilt towards' one side it could 'tilt against' a different side.

OK. Let's get a summary of that:

Time now, Tom, for a recap of our vocabulary please.

A recap of today's vocabulary – we had:

'pressed' – tried to persuade someone to do something.

'Overturn' – change or reverse a decision or ruling.

And 'tilt' – unbalance or change in favour of someone or something.

Don't forget to test yourself on this vocabulary on our website bbclearningenglish.com

and you can find us all over social media.

Thanks for joining us. See you next time. Goodbye.

See you next time. Happy New Year!